Friday, July 30, 2010

The Absurdity of Exercise: Laziness and Modern Society

I've been thinking lately that, from a global and historical point of view, our workout routines are pretty pathetic (okay, so if you're a pro athlete, I'm probably not talking about you).  In the past and in many developing countries today, the idea of heading to the gym to burn off extra calories or to work on your pecs would be absurd—people got enough exercise just in providing food for themselves and their families.  But in our modern, largely machine-driven world, the only way to keep ourselves healthy (read: prevent ourselves from turning into giant twinkies) is to add physical exercise back into our daily lives, usually in very artificial ways.  Treadmills, I'm looking at you.

Reflections like these lead me to the conclusion—one I seem to reach far too often—that there's something incredibly wrong with the modern world.  Technology is awesome and all, but it just doesn't seem like human beings were cut out for sedentary lifestyles.  It's obviously not good for our bodies to sit around in front of computers and TV screens all day, and the fact that people who exercise regularly are less likely to be depressed suggests that it isn't great for our minds, either.

With obesity on the rise, something's gotta give.  Not that I really have any suggestions; I suppose that, precluding a large scale back-to-the-caves movement, people just need to get off their asses and hit the gym more often, as artificial as it is.  I'll probably stick to my hour a day work out and spend the rest of the time poking around Facebook and sipping lattes.  Unless anyone wants to go live in the woods?  I might be persuaded...
Could be chill?
Posted by Nick French at 7:08 PM
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4 comments:

  1. since you linked to the wiki article on anarcho-primitivism (props for that), i think you might find post-civilization ideas interesting. post-civ anarchism is about moving beyond this beast we call civilization without moving backward. sort of like freeganism, scavenging, and such taken to a society-wide level. there really isn't any comprehensive or academic writing about post-civ theory (yet) because, unfortunately, primitivism has dominated anti-civilization anarchist discourse. but, there is one fairly substantial zine (www.tangledwilderness.org/pdfs/usul-postciv-web.pdf)... honestly, parts of it are pretty unnuanced, but even as a very basic intro to post-civ stuff, i'd say it's a worthwhile read. also, check out www.postcivilized.net if you get a chance. it's a blog primarily about things that people are doing already in line with post-civ ideas.

    and scavenging for food and necessities can probably burn up as many calories as growing yr own stuff. try dumpster-diving for all your food for a week :)

    -brittne

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  2. Needless to say, I disagree with Brittne (Oh hey!) but that's definitely not the first or last time.

    While it's definitely much more a romantic a notion to pine away for the land of pines, I think this may be the cost of development. I mean, there's a reason why humans wanted to move away from the scavenging for food - they wanted to do more with their lives. Though it appears less "natural" to go indoors and interact with strange contraptions for exercise, I think we're actually pursuing the natural course of inquisitive minds- we are driving after mental and relational development, which is something we find more fundamentally fulfilling than tree-hugging.

    Of course, we're kind of sucking at that and thus there are many who are not really looking for mental development anymore but have not reverted to the step below that, which is activity that keeps us physically healthy. Also, we may not have gone about mental development in the best/healthiest/most sustainable way possible.

    What it comes down to is that I like universities, medicine, and space travel - things that would never develop or remain existant if we did that whole primitive thing. The more I travel, the more I am reminded of the privilege we have to think about the very things that this blog is dedicated to simply because we don't have to go find our dinner in the bush. I am thankful for it and never want to disparage the hard work that has gone into getting to this point.

    You do an hour of working out every day? Dang... I gotta get moving! haha.

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  3. Thanks for the insightful comments guys!

    Froeb, I agree with you that our loss of natural fitness is a result of development, which I agree is a good thing—I just question whether we've gone about it in the best way possible, which you also recognize is probably not the case. Mental or relational development should not take place at the cost of our bodies.

    At the same time, I don't want to make it sound like I'm romanticizing our pre-modern past (okay, maybe a little bit) and I'm definitely appreciative of the lifestyle that technology has made possible to me. I just think it's gone a little overboard. And yeah, the last month or so I've been trying to hit the gym for an hour at least 5 days a week...I'm probably in the best shape I've been in since middle school, haha.

    Thanks for the suggestions Brittne! Post-civ definitely sounds interesting, I'll have to check it out. Also, good to hear from you, it's been a while! haha

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  4. Great post, Nick! I've been thinking about this a lot this past summer. We all have a tendency to adapt to our environment and the modern world is rewiring us as human beings. The demands of this society (far flung from the human experience) can manifest itself in unhealthy behaviors, counterintuitive ways of thinking, etc. We have to stay in touch with what it means to be human without rejecting our present day.

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